Have you ever been knocked out in real life? I haven’t, but I have been punched in the face a few times in middle and high school. I went to a pretty rough middle school, and for the most part, it was full of disrespectful kids. Some did drugs and others wanted to pick a fight. One time I saw a kid taken away from the cafeteria in handcuffs; the rumor was that it was marijuana.
When I would get picked on, and especially when I was being pushed around, I hit back and made sure I hit hard enough for them to remember me. It worked and I was mostly not a target anymore, even though I was a scrawny teen. Keep in mind I was not a follower of Christ at that time, nor did I even read Scripture or go to church. I came to Christ at seventeen, but that’s another story!
Picking myself up after falling has been a constant event in my life, but I’ve learned from it every time. Regardless of if it was my fault or someone else’s, life has a way of knocking the breath out of me, but I know that God helps me get back up if I am willing to take His hand. This is what inspires me about Joe from MEGALOBOX, who, no matter what the odds are, gets back up to fight again, to the point of becoming a champion of the ring by the end of season 1. But all this changes in season 2. Joe not only loses his fighting spirit but also gives up on everything in life.
Spoilers ahead for season 2.
This time, Joe is not just facing external enemies (like the bullies at my school), or challenging circumstances that put him at a disadvantage—the kinds of things he’s overcome repeatedly. No, this time, he’s fighting a battle inside himself, even with himself, and in fact, he loses, over and over again. Joe faces the darkest depression of his life, and it beats him. He can’t find the strength in himself to overcome it. Instead, he needs a friend.
For those who aren’t familiar, Joe is a boxer who doesn’t use any enhancements when in the ring, even though Megaloboxing is where fighters wear a mechanized harness on their back and arms to move faster or hit harder. Joe refused to use them and even though his opponents did, he rose through the ranks to eventually become the champion of the Megalobox Tournament.
After celebrating Joe’s win and looking to the future, his friend and manager Nanbu becomes sick and doesn’t have long to live. He was the heart of Joe’s crew, which consisted of several orphans who admired the boxer for coming out of the slums that they, too, grew up in and bringing home the gold. Without Nanbu’s wisdom as a former boxing manager, depression and anger took over Joe and he couldn’t face his friends—especially Sachio, who was the de facto leader of the kids and Joe’s biggest fan.
The once-proud hero and champion Gearless Joe was now a drunk and popping pills to ease his pain. He has hallucinations of Nanbu blaming him for leaving the orphans, his friends, and his future for a bottle of alcohol and addictions. It was hard to see the protagonist from season 1 who I was encouraged by fall into the lowest of lows and wallow in despair.
Joe keeps on fighting under a new name, Nomad, to hide his identity as a former champion. This time, though, he’s fighting without a purpose, just keeping his mind distracted. His moniker is a symbol of the lifestyle he chose to adopt.
After he’s been floating from fight to fight, often losing and taking a beating for nothing, everything changes, though Joe doesn’t realize it right away. He has an encounter with another fighter, Chief, who figures out who he is but offers a helping hand to Joe. Chief offers him a place to stay at a theme park where he and his fellow immigrants live peacefully. They reminded me of Central Americans in terms of their culture and festivities, which was interesting.
As Joe spends his days in a trailer, slowly fighting his withdrawals from the drugs and coming to terms with his past, Chief is a listening ear for him. He is a man who has overcome similar struggles, so he knows what Joe is going through. These moments, though painful to watch, are what Joe needs to finally come face to face with reality and decide what to do next with his life.
Since Chief is a fighter as well, he encourages Joe to train again even though he doesn’t have the passion to do it anymore. Slowly but surely, Joe starts to get back into his groove of punching the bag and opening up to Chief about his past. Chief is patient and calm, he smiles and lets Joe know he can overcome his past mistakes and be himself again.
How great it is to have someone with you when life has punched you in the gut and you feel there’s no way out of the mess. The once prized fighter was now broken and homeless, but there was a light he could see in the darkness.
We don’t always have a Chief though, do we? Many times we will be without our friends and family when facing challenges, and it seems like we are completely alone. But there is another Friend there, just waiting. One who sees who we really are, our full potential; who doesn’t get caught up in our failures but still sees the beauty in us even when we make a mess of our lives. No matter how messed up we’ve made our lives to be, Christ can still turn it around if we trust in Him as our Friend and Savior.
Christ sees in us what we don’t even see in ourselves. No one can escape having sinned or made mistakes in relationships or other areas in life. Even though we have all messed up, Christ is there for us and gives us another chance, and another, and another. He never walks away from us like Joe did to his friends. The ones that walk away from God are us, and He is still waiting patiently for us to come back to Him.
What’s more, Christ sent us the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God Himself, to guide those who trust in Him. He is there with us every day and we can ask Him for help. So maybe we don’t have a Chief, but we have Him who is so much better!
But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
John 16:7
Once the withdrawals from the pills stopped, Joe was sober enough to understand that he didn’t need to keep running. At one point, Joe asks the illusion of Nanbu, “I need you to fight with me one more time.” After he says this, Nanbu disappears and Joe feels like himself again. Nanbu was never there—he had already passed on, and Joe realized that the pain of losing his manager and friend was what was holding him back. After this scene, Joe shaves and his demeanor from the previous season returns.
Tragically, Chief passes away in his sleep and once again, Joe loses a crucial friend in his life. But this time, instead of going into a deep depression, Joe chooses to take his friend’s advice instead of ignoring it, as he did with Nanbu. Joe was there the day before Chief died and they agreed to see their dreams come to pass, and so Joe feels that he is keeping his friend’s wishes by moving forward.
He doesn’t lean on any vice to keep himself sober this time. Instead, he makes the right choice even though it is a difficult one.
What a great ending to Joe’s story, right? Well, not quite. Joe still has a big mess to clean up. His long battle with depression and addiction caused a lot of damage along the way; he hurt his friends by abandoning them in their time of grief when Nanbu died.
Even when we are forgiven, whether by God or others, it doesn’t clean everything up. There are still lives that won’t be the same after what we have done. Time doesn’t heal all wounds; some leave scars that, though healed, still linger with painful memories. Joe can’t fix everything even though he tries, and that’s why I loved this season. It is so realistic! God always guides us with wisdom on what to do, but life isn’t always as it once was. Living with the consequences of our decisions is part of life.
Step by step, Joe starts to rebuild what emotional and relational pieces he left behind, and some people even come around to hear him out. It’s not how it used to be, and Joe certainly takes verbal blows from his closest allies—people like Sachio and some fighters he beat in the ring. He realizes that they were counting on him as a friend, and since he abandoned them, he had to show them now that he had truly changed and wanted to be a part of their lives again. It was hard to watch at times, but again it showed the reality of what happens when we abandon those we care about and then suddenly show up again expecting everything to be as it was.
Sometimes as Christians, we think that the life of faith is like Joe’s season 1: overcoming enemies and difficult circumstances to become heroes. And sometimes it is like that, for a while. But in real life, often the most difficult battles are the ones we fight inside, in our hearts and minds, just like season 2 for Joe. We can’t always punch our enemy, or silence him with a scripture. Sometimes, we’re our own worst enemy. And in those times, we need a friend who can remind us of who we are and what we were made for; a friend who will stand by us in the mess, and then help us clean it up.
- MEGALOBOX S2 – Fighting for a Second Chance - 03.20.2024
- First Impression: PLUTO - 10.27.2023
- First Impression: SPY x FAMILY Season 2 - 10.07.2023
I’ve never seen Megalo Box, but this really spoke to me, especially that last part. It’ll be 14 years since my grandmother died in five days, and I’m still in the rough of it.
Hi Ridley, thanks for reading my post! I am glad it blessed you. Yeah my grandmother passed several years ago also and it still hurts when I think about it so I understand to an extent. Praying the Lord comforts you, and you can hold her in your heart and memories 🙂
[…] in Christ, a scripture, or a promise that God has given to His children. I recently wrote a post on MEGALOBOX that reminded me of not giving up even when I make mistakes or give up. Stories about being […]